Ruling party embraces multicultural policies for election

Rep. Lee Hae-chan, left, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and Rep. Lee In-young, floor leader of the DPK, participate in a party meeting at the National Assembly, Friday. Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is preparing to introduce more policies to improve immigrants' rights in the lead-up to the general election next April hoping to attract voters of multicultural backgrounds.

The DPK's committee on multiculturalism has suggested recently the party unveil various election promises related to the rights of immigrants including the establishment of a presidential body on multiculturalism so that the body can serve as a control tower to tackle relevant social issues, according to sources. The pledges also include expanding support for undocumented immigrant children, easing the work permission system for foreigners, giving teachers and public servants mandatory education on multiculturalism, improving welfare systems for multicultural families and establishing an overall marriage policy for immigrants. Above all, the committee is planning to introduce laws to give diaspora groups living in Korea support in welfare and jobs which includes a plan to establish a help center for those people.

“As there is no control tower on multiculturalism in the government, similar policies exist between governmental organizations, meaning some taxes are being used redundantly,” said Hong Mi-young, chairwoman of the DPK's committee on multiculturalism.

She added the committee is planning to hold an internal discussion on Jan. 6 with DPK election specialists to narrow down a list of election candidates with multicultural backgrounds for the April general election and fine-tune the contents of election promises tailored for those immigrants.

“In order to manage the issues created by the increasing number of immigrants here, there should be an organization which is in charge of handling 2.5 million immigrants in Korea and 7.5 million Koreans overseas,” another DPK official added.

The move came amid a rising number of immigrants in Korea and thus rising demands to introduce relevant public services for them. According to surveys, the number of immigrants, which includes foreign residents and naturalized citizens, stands at 2.09 million, accounting for 4.1 percent of the population.

In particular, the number of diaspora from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and China measures about 1 million as of October 2019, according to the committee. Among them, about 140,000 have taken Korean citizenship and 90,000 hold permanent residency.

Also, South Korea is one of the few Asian countries which gives local election voting rights to foreign residents that meet certain visa criteria, meaning politicians consider them as potential voters. More than 100,000 foreigners had voting rights in the 2018 June local elections.

Stressing that there is discrimination and hate against immigrants in Korean society, Rep. Keum Tae-sup wrote on Facebook earlier this month, “The immigrant issue is one of the most important to resolve in our society.”

With the DPK taking such initiatives, other political parties are in a rush to appeal to those immigrants by broadening their political agendas in multiculturalism and minority rights before the April election. Earlier this month, the minor Justice Party approved the party membership of Lee Jasmine, a Philippine-born naturalized Korean citizen and former conservative Saenuri Party lawmaker, appointing her as head of a special party committee on the human rights of migrants. She has been a symbolic figure in the political scene as she is the first naturalized Korean lawmaker.

After Lee's move, the Justice Party support rating reached 10 percent, according to data from Gallup Korea on Friday, up from 7 percent week-on-week.

The DPK and the main opposition Liberty Korea Party announced their election rules, giving candidates with multicultural background extra credits in primaries.